Why I Don't Think Being Mindful Is A Fad & How It's Changed My Life

One of worst habits without a doubt is that I'm incredibly sceptical. And when the entire mindfulness trend came about I was rolling my eyes so hard I'm surprised they didn't fall out of my skull. But the more I learnt about it and the more I came to understand mindfulness I realised it made so much sense and it's something I should probably try and give a go. And I know that the being more mindful and in touch with your intuition can sound a little hippy dippy but it doesn't have to be and over the past year it's something that has had such a positive effect on my mood so I wanted to share a few thoughts on it.

mindful

adjective

conscious or aware of something.

WHERE I'M MORE MINDFUL

The first couple of areas that I became more mindful in my life was with my attitude towards spending money and generally what I was buying. During my teenage years, I had a terrible spending addiction and I was completely obsessed with stuff, I thought that having all these things and possessions were going to fill a void in my life. Obviously, that didn't work and all I did was end up dangerously into my overdraft. Even though I write about beauty and styling as part of my job I am incredibly aware of the relationship that I've had with things and the problems that they've caused in the past. Now I know that endless possessions are not how you find happiness and you have to be aware that it is something that comes from within yourself and possessions should only add extra value to your life and not dominate it.

Another area where I've adopted a more mindful mindset is in general day to day life. I've stopped putting pressure on myself to look like I'm doing things a certain way to make other people happy and truly started to live life on my terms. It's taken me years to get to this point and feel comfortable doing that and most importantly not apologising for it. We all feel the pressure to do things a certain way but that doesn't mean we need to, especially when it's just to prove a point to somebody else. Now I do things because I want to do them, they make me happy and enrich my life. I don't see the point of trying to tick certain things off this imaginary list set by society if it's not going to benefit me in any way.

HOW I PRACTICE IT

Whenever I think about being mindful I feel like it comes with really stereotypical connotations like you need to be laid on a yoga mat or on a beach alone with your thoughts. But that isn't how I've found it to work at all, for me how I've started to live a more mindful life is just by slowing down a tiny amount and really thinking about what I'm doing. So when I started it I was mostly doing it to do with shopping and one of the big things that came along with that was setting myself a limit and not going over that. We all know the excitement that comes along with finding something in a store that you instantly fall in love with and then instantly want to buy. And getting out of that habit was probably the most difficult thing to do, it takes a lot of willpower which might sound ridiculous but if you've ever had a spending addiction then you will know exactly what I mean.

Taking the time to slow down and just be more aware of what I'm doing has been such a huge change to me, we're encouraged to go go go constantly which is awesome when you need to get stuff done which is something we all need to do. But there is this large pressure to be busy all the time, because if you're not then obviously that means you're lazy [insert eye roll here]. Your life is yours to live however you please and it's no-one else's place to tell you how you should or shouldn't be doing it.

WHY BEING MINDFUL DOESN'T MEAN YOU LIVE WITH YOUR HEAD IN THE CLOUDS.

We all know that when the whole mindfulness trend came around that people were like oh it's another fad and trend. And there are certainly some things that become incredibly popular online that are like that, like last year with the whole Hygge trend. And I think a lot of people can easily presume that being more mindful in life means that you might be living with your head in the clouds which actually isn't the case at all. It makes you incredibly aware of what you're doing in every capacity which is something that's so important. I've never felt more in tune with what I'm doing and what's going on as I'm really thinking about everything and the processes that come with it.

LISTENING TO YOURSELF AND YOUR INTUITION

I've always been a big believer that it's so much easier to listen to other people over yourself and to an extent we all do it. We crave the approval of other people over ourselves so much that it's obvious that we often trust the opinion of others more than we trust our own. Listening to what you truly want is scary and something we probably all struggle with when we're constantly being told by society that we need to do XYZ. And I know that I started to trust myself a lot more when I was in my last year university and learnt that usually, your first idea is the right one and over the years I've found that the same goes for day to day life.